17 hours ago
4
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
President Trump has threatened to increase Mexico’s tariff rate to 30 percent starting Aug. 1, claiming the country hasn’t sufficiently tackled drug cartels.
July 16, 2025, 7:31 p.m. ET
Days after he threatened to impose a 30 percent tariff on Mexico over what he said was its failure to stop drug cartels, President Trump doubled down on Wednesday, accusing the country’s politicians of being controlled by those cartels.
The cartels have “very strong controls over Mexico,” he said while signing an act regarding fentanyl. He added later, “Can’t let that happen. The Mexican authorities are petrified to go to work because the cartels have a tremendous grip on Mexico and the politicians.”
Mexican officials have been negotiating for months with the United States in hopes of staving off further damage to their country’s export-driven economy. But those efforts — and their work to address Mr. Trump’s concerns about cartels and migration — appear to have had limited effect.
In a letter to Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, released on Saturday, Mr. Trump claimed that the countries had a “strong relationship” and that “Mexico has been helping me secure the border.” Indeed, the number of people crossing the southern border illegally has dropped to levels not seen in decades.
But Mr. Trump said that because Mexico “still has not stopped” drug cartels or the flow of fentanyl into the United States, he would impose a 30 percent tariff starting Aug. 1.
Ms. Sheinbaum, who has previously bristled at Mr. Trump’s allegations of Mexican officials’ ties to cartels, defended Mexico’s efforts this week and claimed the authorities were seizing and destroying drug laboratories “every day.” She added that the United States must also control the flow of weapons from its side of the border that empowers the cartels.
